Aspen Technology, Inc. (AspenTech), a global leader in industrial software, announced financial results for its third quarter of fiscal 2023, ended March 31, 2023.
“AspenTech’s third quarter performance was highlighted by a return to double-digit ACV growth, driven by ongoing strength in several of our key markets. We believe this performance, in the midst of an uncertain economic environment, is an important indication of the strategic importance of AspenTech’s solutions to our customers,” said Antonio Pietri, President and Chief Executive Officer of AspenTech.
“We have made significant progress on our integration and transformation initiatives that have combined OSI, SSE and heritage AspenTech together to create a much larger, diversified and faster growing industrial software leader,” Pietri added. “We believe AspenTech is well-positioned to generate attractive, long-term growth and profitability given the positive demand trends in our end-markets as customers increase their technology investments to meet their sustainability and operational excellence objectives.”
Third Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Recent Business Highlights
- Annual contract value, which we define as the estimate of the annual value of our portfolio of term license and software maintenance and support, or SMS, contracts, the annual value of SMS agreements purchased with perpetual licenses and the annual value of standalone SMS agreements purchased with certain legacy term license agreements, which have become an immaterial part of our business, was $854.6 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2023, which increased 11.2% compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
- Annual spend for heritage AspenTech, which the company defines as the annualized value of all term license and maintenance contracts at the end of the quarter for the businesses other than OSI and SSE, was $712.0 million at the end of the third quarter of fiscal 2023, which increased 8.6% compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2022 and 2.1% sequentially.
Summary of Third Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results
As a result of the transaction between AspenTech and Emerson Electric Co.(“Emerson”), EmerSubCX, the subsidiary Emerson created as part of the transaction, became the surviving entity when the transaction closed on May 16, 2022. The comparable periods shown in the financial statements below for fiscal year 2022 reflect only the historical results of the OSI and SSE businesses that were contributed to new AspenTech.
AspenTech’s total revenue of $229.9 million included:
- License and solutions revenue, which represents the portion of a term license agreement allocated to the initial license and OSI revenue where software and professional services are recognized as one performance obligation, was $136.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, compared to $50.8 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
- Maintenance revenue, which represents the portion of customer agreements related to ongoing support and the right to future product enhancements, was $77.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, compared to $27.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
- Services and other revenue was $16.3 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, compared to $6.5 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
For the quarter ended March 31, 2023, AspenTech reported loss from operations of $78.5 million, compared to loss from operations of $2.7 million in the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
Net loss was $57.6 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, leading to net loss per share of $0.89, compared to net loss per share of $0.09 in the same period of last fiscal year.
Non-GAAP income from operations was $66.8 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2023. Non-GAAP net income was $69.1 million, or $1.06 per share, for the third quarter of fiscal 2023. These non-GAAP results add back the impact of stock-based compensation expense, amortization of intangibles, fees related to acquisitions and integration planning and unrealized loss less realized gain on derivatives associated with acquisitions. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is presented in the financial tables included in this press release.
AspenTech had cash and cash equivalents of $286.7 million and no borrowings as of March 31, 2023.
During the third quarter, AspenTech generated $131.0 million in cash flow from operations and $129.3 million in free cash flow. Free cash flow1 is calculated as net cash provided by operating activities adjusted for the net impact of: purchases of property, equipment and leasehold improvements and payments for capitalized computer software development costs.
Business Outlook
Based on information as of today, April 26, 2023, AspenTech is issuing the following guidance for fiscal year 2023. Please note this guidance does not include any contribution from the acquisition of Micromine, which is pending final regulatory approval.
- Annual Contract Value (“ACV”) growth of 11.0-12.0% year-over-year.
- GAAP operating cash flow of at least $324 million
- Free cash flow1 of at least $315 million
- Total bookings of $1.03 to $1.06 billion
- Total revenue of $1.04 to $1.06 billion
- GAAP total expense of $1,219 to $1,224 million
- Non-GAAP total expense of $642 to $647 million
- GAAP operating loss of $179 to $164 million
- Non-GAAP operating income of $398 to $413 million
- GAAP net loss of $110 to $97 million
- Non-GAAP net income of $372 to $385 million
- GAAP net loss per share of $1.68 to $1.48
- Non-GAAP net income per share of $5.63 to $5.83
These statements are forward-looking and actual results may differ materially. Refer to the Forward-Looking Statements safe harbor below for information on the factors that could cause AspenTech’s actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements.
- Effective January 1, 2023, we no longer exclude acquisition and integration planning related payments from our computation of free cash flow. Free cash flow for all prior periods presented has been revised to the current period computation methodology.
Conference Call and Webcast
AspenTech will host a conference call and webcast presentation on April 26, 2023, at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss its financial results, business outlook, and related corporate and financial matters. A live webcast of the call will be available on AspenTech's Investor Relations website, http://ir.aspentech.com/, via its "Webcasts" page. To access the call by phone, please go to the following registration link and you will be provided with dial-in details. To avoid delays, we encourage participants to dial into the conference call fifteen minutes ahead of the scheduled start time. A replay of the webcast will also be available for a limited time at http://ir.aspentech.com/.
